Tuesday 5 November 2.00 pm 

Some extraordinary playing from this young man who I have listened to since the age of 13 when he was the youngest pianist to be accepted by the Royal College of Music in the class of Dmitri Alexeev. And I well remember his remarkable performance of great clarity of Brahms Handel variations where this young man could already hold his own with the more mature artists of the class

The back of beyond -Bright future for the class of Dmitri Alexeev -Jacky Zhang-Alexander Doronin-Nikita Burzanitsa-Thomas Kelly -JunLin Wu

It is never easy for a young man to have to grow up along side such a precocious talent . His appearances in the finals of the young musician of the year from a very early age have always aroused great interest although through a strange twist of fate he has not yet been crowned. But he has certainly been noticed and it has been a joy to watch such a gifted young boy turn gradually into an artist and a young man with a personality and musical voice of his own .It is a great accolade to the remarkable Alexeev’s who like the Craxton’ s years ago take these young musicians into their inner circle and not only instruct but nurture their progress with patience and understanding.

The Bach B major prelude and Fugue book 2 was played with a clarity and beauty of sculptured sounds of great purity allowing the Prelude to contrast with the serious four part fugue that unwound in a beautiful pastoral tempo .The difference between staccato and legato contrasts adding great character to knotty twine of such nobility from the Genius of Kothen.

Chopin’s second Ballade was played with the same clarity and with a flowing tempo as the ‘Andantino’ was allowed to unfold with such natural poise and sense of style but slightly lacking in the colours that Jacky was to unleash in the later part of the programme.Jacky has an extraordinary clarity to all he does which was to make his playing of the ‘Presto con fuoco’ so exciting and refreshingly precise. His playing of the ‘Andantino’ ,though ,lacked a certain weight and warmth as though his fingers were not sucking the juice out of each note with limpet like insistence.There was a natural flow and beguiling sense of rubato as the voices duetted together gradually becoming more passionate and insistent with the ‘stretto piu mosso’ indicated by the composer. Jacky always plays with such intelligent musicianship and sense of architectural understanding and the eruption of the ‘Presto con fuoco’ lead so naturally into the dynamic drive of the ‘agitato’ coda.The deep bass melodic octaves ,though, were strangely played on the surface and not the marcato and legato of Chopin’s very precise pedal indications.The coda too was played with great passion and remarkable technical mastery but slightly missed the sumptuous grand sound that Chopin clearly marks. Even the final long pedal on the ‘forzato’ chord was ignored where the return of the ‘Andantino’ should be like a memory after a long journey, of sounds lost in a mist of mystery and peace. This was in many ways a remarkable performance but missing the sense of a story being told of wondrous beauty.

It was just this beauty that he now found and that ignited the late B major Nocturne. Here there was a beautiful sense of improvised freedom and subtle colouring.The luminosity of the sound was quite magical and of a languid beauty where his superb trills were of true bel canto shape. An exquisite coda of the controlled freedom of mature mastery.

The Sonata in Bb flat minor is one of Chopin’s greatest works of classical discipline but also of romantic freedom and invention.The last movement of such originality that it had Schumann declare the sonata as “four of Chopin’s maddest children under the same roof” and found the title “Sonata” capricious and slightly presumptuous.He also remarked that the Marche funèbre “has something repulsive” about it, and that “an adagio in its place, perhaps in D-flat, would have had a far more beautiful effect”.In addition he stated that the movement “seems more like a mockery than any music”,and when Felix Mendelssohn was asked for an opinion of it, he commented, “Oh, I abhor it.” From the opening notes this sixteen year old musician showed us what a masterpiece of originality Chopin had written.Schumann had famously written about the arrival of Chopin playing his salon variations op 2 with ‘ Hats off ,Gentlemen, a genius’ . Little could he have imagined what the word genius really can mean.Often not pleasant because so unexpected! Jacky brought a dramatic note to the opening ,which he decided not to repeat, ending the much debated to be or not to be theory.This was a young musician with a vision of maturity and mastery.If he attacked the opening chords unnecessarily with a little too much vehemence from above, they immediately dissolved into a masterly ‘doppio movimento’ of whispered insistence gradually building to the beautiful second subject that was played with poignant nobel sentiment.The development grew so naturally out of the exposition and any thought of a repeat would have been only bending to convention and not for artistic invention.The opening fanfare was now transposed to the left hand with nobility and sumptuous full sounds.The coda played a little too vertically instead of the horizontal shaping that Chopin indicates with his accelerando to the final majestic chords. His playing of the ‘Scherzo’ was superb for its technical assurance and clarity and the sumptuous beauty he brought to the ‘Trio’ was of great beauty and artistry. There was a beautiful flowing tempo to the ‘Marche Funebre’ that allowed Jacky to shape this movement with nobility and gloriously rich sounds.The trio just grew out of these noble sounds as it was allowed to flow with simplicity and radiance.It gave great architectural shape to a movement that can seem repetitive in less intelligent hands and it was wonderful to see the Funeral March come into view again after such radiant beauty.This time ,though, it was played with searing intensity with an extra bass note just adding colour and mist as the March disappeared into the distance.The last movement was played with superb clarity and technical mastery but there was also the gentle throbbing that evolved in its midst and where the movement for a moment became almost sentimental instead of only the cold wind blowing over the graves.

The Granados was a tour de force of bravura and style as the teasingly virtuosistic outpouring of notes depicted so vividly the sunlight, luminosity, and vital life of Spain.

Jacky had kept the best for last and it was his breathtaking performance of ‘Mazeppa’ by Liszt that was quite overwhelming, not only for the technical mastery but for the sense of balance and style. Here this young man had shown us his remarkable clarity and technical mastery but also a kaleidoscopic sense of colour with passionate outpourings of fearless virtuosity that became the ravishing beauty of a great tenor operatic aria accompanied with sensibility of great artistry.

Jacky Zhang is 16 and lives in South London. He is currently studying at the Royal College of Music as a fourth-year undergraduate. He studies Piano with Professor Dmitri Alexeev and Composition with Professor Kenneth Hesketh. He also has other interests such as songwriting, producing, and composition for screen.

Jacky Zhang at St Mary’s A musical genius with a wondrous voyage of discovery ahead.